Geographical Basics

• Scales• Space • Place• Borders • Networks• Globalization• Environment/Society

Relations• Cultural Landscapes

• Economic Development

• Agriculture• Population and

Migration• Cultural Geographies• Identity and Gender• Power• Geopolitics

Scales in Geography

1. Global

2. World-regional (e.g. North America)

3. State (e.g. United States)

4. Regional (e.g. American West

5. Metropolitan Region (e.g. Denver Metro)

6. Locality (e.g. Boulder)

7. Neighborhood (e.g. the “Hill’)

8. Household: Gender relations, Age relations

9. Personal: Body/Emotions/Identity/Spirituality

1

2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

Pyramid Model

Scale Relations

1. 1. Horizontal linkages

2. Vertical linkages

3. Jumping Scales

E. EuropeW. Europe

Russia Central Asia

S.E. AsiaChina/E. Asia

Middle EastS. Asia

AfricaMexico,

Central America and Caribbean

North America

Regional Linkages

South America

World Trade Organization

Vertical Linkages

State of Colorado

US Governnment

City of Boulder

Horizontal Municipal Linkages

Dushanbe, Tajikistan

World Trade Organization

State of Colorado

US Government

City of BoulderJalapa, Nicaragua

Jumping Scales

Myanmar

Dushanbe, Tajikistan

World Trade Organization

US Governnment

State of Colorado

City of Boulder

Chiapas

Jumping Scalesthe Boomerang Effect

Govs of Germany,

FranceSpainEtc.

Cleveland

Government Of

Mexico

San Cristobal de las Casas

Space

• Absolute or abstract space: space as a container

• Social or relative space: space produced through social interaction. Societies produce space and space, in turn, produces societies.

• Public space: space made available by the government or by private groups for political or leisurely activity.

Place

• A portion of geographical space occupied by a person or thing, and thus given meaning.

• Place is constructed out of interconnected processes operating at all scales, but which come together in a unique configuration at a particular location.

Borders

• Political borders:• National • Municipal

• Human borders:• Societal/Ethnic/Racial: Difference• Personal

• Absolute borders/barriers• Permeable borders/barriers

• Do Borders Still Matter?

Networks

• The Geography of Orange Juice– Things as networks– Places as networks– Spaces as networks

Networks

Preview Slides

• The following slides were not shown in the introduction and you do not need to be responsible for them on the first midterm; however, they give a preview of what is to come in the remainder of the course

Globalization

• Increasing connectedness of people and places through converging processes of economic, political and cultural change.

Tim

e / Cost

YEAR1800 1900 2000

Time Lag

Cost

Communication Convergence

Environment-Society Relations

•Environmental Determinism

EnvironmentSociety

•Cultural Landscape

SocietyEnvironment

•Probably some of both

Environment Society

Development

• The process by which a society goes about realizing its potential. Long history of politically charged interpretations

• Different approaches to development– Economic Development

– Social Development

– Sustainable Development

– Alternative Development

– Contrast with Uneven Development

Migration

• Push Factors: – Conditions that cause people to leave their area

• Pull Factors: – Conditions that attract people to another

location

Culture and Identity

• The individual expression of a culture or multiplicity of cultures

• how one person associates or distinguishes his or herself in the context of existing cultures– National identity

– Ethnicity or Race

– Religion

– Gender identity

• Multiple interlocking identities

Gender

• Social elaboration of sex-based differences

• How do gendered social relations vary over space and time?

• how are these implicated in the making of place and spaces at different scales?– Household -State– Community -Global

Power

• The real or presumed ability of a person, group or institution to exert force or influence, to make others do their bidding

• Relations of power

• “Relations of rule”

• At all scales

Geopolitics

• the study of control over territory, of power over the earth and the peoples on it.

• Nation

• State

• Nationalism

• Local

• Regional

• International

• Transnational

• Supranational

Geopolitics scales

Resistance

• Social activism

• Revolution: armed/violent

• Scott: “Weapons of the Weak”

• Changing scalar relations of resistance